<p>Cellophane</a> Semiosis: The College Admissions Process & The Hidden Benefits of Early Admissions</p>
<p>Hey thanks for this, one of the tables in the post was particularly very interesting. </p>
<p>Good article. The rankings at the end of the article were pretty accurate in my opinion, it is better to rank them by tiers.</p>
<p>I know many, many kids who used this approach. When it works, it can be beautiful. Apply to Princeton, you're in, game over, enjoy senior year. It does not always work that way. I've seen kids who have an outside chance at their dream schools take a deep breath and forego the app so that they would have a sure shot at a less selective school. Then wonder when kids with similar stats get into the dream school. I've seen kids frantically pick an ED school with just so they have an ED school. I've seen kids pained because they need financial aid/ merit money and therefore cannot apply ED without taking a financial risk, or worse apply anyways. I've seen kids break ED commitments. I've seen kids put off their other apps until their ED response comes, and have to spend the holiday season rushing to do a mediocre job on the rest of their app in a depressed state. I've seen families so upset during those holidays as well.</p>
<p>Applying ED to a school is great idea if you don't need to compare financial aid packages and if you know you will not regret making the choice of school now, and if you have added some early safeties that you like very much. </p>
<p>Early is wonderful, and I think all of the apps should be done early, not just the ED one. The most important apps are your safeties in my opinion and having them in place is the first and most difficult thing to do. It involves changing your focus from your "dream" school and opening your mind. Tough to do. </p>
<p>Ideally, early apps can be a great litmus test. My oldest son applied to a high reach, low reach, match and safety, all EA. When he got into all but his high reach, it cut his list significantly, and could have ended the process there. He now could just apply to reaches, schools that he liked better than what he already had. My second son got a different message with his choices. He had to start looking for some other schools since it was going to be a rough haul with the major he wanted. He needed to find other ways to address his college interests. And so he did. The third one liked all of his early schools and is going to one over his reach school.</p>
<p>That's a good point, cptofthehouse. The article does not account for financial aid considerations.</p>
<p>bump......</p>
<p>I think the most important thing is to disntinguish yrself from the throng of overprepared applicants. So many have good stats, but you need to show them that you're unique in some way--talent, passion, dream, effort, etc. Don't obsess about your scores. So many of my friends this year had perfect or close to perfect stats and were passed over by others who had something about them... Even overcoming a huge hardship. Just my two cents,</p>